V. I. Lenin

To the Comrades Studying at the School in Bologna{1}

Written:Written November 20 (December 5), 1910Published:First printed in 1911 in the “Report of the Second Social-Democratic College of Propaganda and Agitation for Workers”.

      Published by theVperyodgroup.

      Published according to the copy in N. K. Krupskaya’s handwriting.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,[1974],

      Moscow,Volume 16,

      pages328-329.Translated:Transcription\Markup:R. CymbalaCopyleft:V. I. Lenin Internet Archive (www.marxists.org)
      © 2004

      Permission is granted to copy and/or distribute this document under the
      terms of theGNU Free Documentation License.

DearComrades,

Icannot agree to your proposal that I should undertake to read
lectures in Bologna, firstly, on grounds of principle and secondly, because
it is impossible for me to come to Bologna.

Boththe trend and the methods of the group which lies organised the
school on the island of Capri and in Bologna I consider harmful to the
Party and un-Social-Democratic.

The“platform” put forward by the organisers of the Capri school and
a section (true, a minority) of their pupils, consists of a defence of
digressions from Marxism in philosophy, in politics, and in the definition
of the tactical aims of our Party. Moreover, the organisation of the school
at Bologna contradicts both this “platform” and the pro-Party principle,
because the organisers are acting schismatically, not only giving no
assistance (whether in money they possess, or in personal service) to the
school commission which was appointed by the plenum of the Central
Committee in January t910, but directly sabotaging all the initiatives
taker by this commission.

Henceit is clear that I can take no part in anything under taken by
this anti-Party group which is divorcing itself from the principles of
Social-Democracy.

ButI should have great pleasure, of course, in giving thestudentsof the Bologna school, irrespective of their views or
sympathies, a series of lectures on tactics, on the situation of the Party
and on the agrarian question. With this in mind I take the liberty of
inviting the student comrades to come to Paris on their way back. A whole
series of lecturescould be organised there. The travelling expenses could be raised in the
following way:

1) The organisers of the Capri school borrowed 500 francs from the
Bolsheviks. Now they have money and will probably repay their debt to the
Party, i.e., to the Central Committee Bureau Abroad. I, on my part, am
prepared to make efforts to get this money allocated to cover the expenses
of the journey from Bologna to Paris and I think that the Bolshevik whom we
have delegated to the Central Committee Bureau Abroad will do everything in
his power to help.

2) If 500 francs will not be enough (I do not know how many students there
are at Bologna and bow many could make the journey), there is another 1,500
francs that the plenum of the C.C. assigned for the school commission with
which the organisers of the Bologna school broke off connections. I think
it would be possible to get this money assigned for a course of lectures in
Paris for students who might Wish to come over from Bologna.

Parisis big enough for the thing to be arranged there quite secretly
(there are districts where there are no Russians at all), moreover, it
could be arranged somewhere in the outlying suburbs.

Inclosing I express my thanks to the students at Bologna for their
comradely invitation and hope that my proposal about coming to Paris will
be accepted.

Withcomradely greetings,

{1}Theschool in Bologna(Italy)—the second anti-Party school
of theVperyodgroup (end of 1910 to beginning of 1911). It was a
continuation of the Capri school—the factionional centre of the otzovists
and ultimatumists.